Does the NA 28TH CHOOSE the Alexandrian Manuscripts by DEFAULT or by Honest Scholarship ?

OMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR 1 JOHN 4:3  . . . .

DOES the NA 28^TH  CHOOSE

the Alexandrian Manuscripts

by DEFAULT ?

Or . . .  

does the NA 28^th weigh FAIRLY the Evidence of all Manuscripts when evaluating a variant ?

This is an extremely important issue because a great majority of the modern English versions follow NA 28^th’s ( and 26^th ‘s  and 27^th’s ) lead, omitting the TEST passage in 1 John 4:3.  

See the data table in our last post: Does Nestle-Aland’s 28th Edition WEIGH the Evidence FAIRLY . . . in 1 JOHN 4:3 ?

Our test passage is 1 John 4:3, which has the Apostle John’s admonishments to “TEST THE SPIRITS” by seeing if they confess that 

JESUS CHRIST has come in the flesh.

Let’s look at the Data on a Table to see if the NA 28^TH has acted impartially and objectively when weighing the manuscripts.   

TEST phrase is found here:

And every spirit that confesseth not that

JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh is not of GOD:

1 John 4:3

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Keep in mind now that these manuscripts are included in the NA 28^th Apparatus in its Greek Edition, according to David Robert Palmer’s edition of The First Epistle of John, found here: http://bibletranslation.ws/palmer-translation/

NA 28^TH Uncials Which INCLUDE the TEST PHRASE

Source of NA 28th APPARATUS	UNCIAL MSS	CENTURY	TEXT TYPE	PAGES	IN / NOT IN SKYPOINT	CITED IN GK EDITIONS
PALMER	Sinaiticus = א  = 01	4TH	ALEX	148	SKY	ALL
PALMER	K = 018	9TH	BYZ	288	SKY	ALL
PALMER	L = 020	9TH	BYZ	189	SKY	info missing
PALMER	PSI = 044	8-9TH	ALEX	261	SKY	ALL
PALMER	049	9TH	BYZ	149	NOT SKY	info not available
PALMER	056	10-11TH	BYZ	381 @ Paris	SKY	info missing
PALMER	0142	10TH	BYZ	381 @ Munich	SKY under 056	only a little info available

What does this data show us ? 

First of all, there are 7 uncials ( hand-written,  all capital letters, with no spaces between words ) which include the TEST phrase.

The 7 Uncials which INCLUDE  the TEST phrase range from the 4^th century to the 11^th.  Three uncials are from the 9^th century. We can see that the  EARLIEST uncial does include the TEST phrase.

We note that 3 of the 7 uncials are reviewed in Robert Waltz’s SKYPOINT site, but the other 4 Byzantine are not well documented on his site. 

As a matter of fact , the Byzantine uncial 0142 is hidden, not listed, and tucked away under the review of Byzantine uncial 056 on SKYPOINT. 

Secondly, the two Alexandrian uncial manuscripts and one other uncial which is Byzantine in this list have been cited in all the Greek critical texts including Nestle-Aland’s texts. 

Thus, they have been WELL-KNOWN and considered “reputable” and valid manuscripts.

IN COMPARISON, now . . .

The NA 28^th citation for uncials which OMIT the Test phrase encompasses only two: The Alexandrinus – 5^th Century, BYZANTINE, and the Vaticanus – 4^th Century, ALEXANDRIAN.

Does it seem likely that the NA 28^th

really weighed the uncial witnesses FAIRLY ?

or 

Does the NA 28^th give more PREFERENCE

to the Alexandrinus and Vaticanus than to

the combined testimony of the

 Sinaiticus, K, L, 044, 049, 056, and 0142 uncials ? 

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